MORGANTOWN — New councilors Zack Cruze (3rd Ward) and Dave Harshbarger (6th Ward) sat for their first meeting Tuesday as members of Morgantown City Council took the oath of office for the coming two-year term.
Council unanimously voted to retain Bill Kawecki as the city’s mayor for a third year.
There were two nominations for deputy mayor — Rachel Fetty and Jenny Selin. Fetty was selected on a 5-2 vote. She voted against the motion as did Kawecki, who nominated Selin. Selin’s vote was 2-5 with Fetty and Kawecki in the minority.
Once council got down to business, City Manager Paul Brake provided some clarification on the city’s path forward regarding annexation — specifically that the city plans to take the time needed to address concerns and make its case adequately.
“We’re not under a deadline,” he said.
“There is this sense of some looming deadline and it’s an artificial deadline. Again, it was set out as a proposed timeline,” Brake said. “What I anticipate is engaging in even greater dialogue and taking a much more thoughtful process to go about this … Annexation is a simple concept, but it’s a very difficult subject.”
He also addressed the format of the upcoming annexation meetings planned by the city, the first of which will be held from 6-8 p.m. July 11 in the North Elementary gym.
“It’s not a public hearing. It’s not a room set up like this where you have rows of chairs and people go up to a podium. It’s meant to be interactive,” Brake said, explaining that public hearings are one-sided conversations whereas this format will allow attendees to move around the room, take in the various exhibits the city prepares and engage with city staff directly with questions and comments.
While the city’s plan to annex about 3.8 square miles, 367 businesses and 12,830 residents into the city has dominated public discourse of late, nobody spoke on the issue during Tuesday’s meeting.
What did draw a number of people to the meeting was live music at Sabraton Station — more specifically, how late the venue can hold outdoor concerts during the week of MountainFest.
When co-owners Craig Wolfe and Dustin Barnes requested a noise waiver for the dates July 24-27, they noticed the city implemented 10 p.m. restriction for Wednesday (July 24) and Thursday (July 25).
They said the music has historically been allowed to continue until midnight.
Barnes, Wolfe and a number of the businesses employees and supporters argued that the venue has held MountainFest events for the last 15 years and that cutting those hours would have a significant financial impact on the business, its employees and the city.
However, a handful of area residents spoke in favor of the shorter hours during the week, explaining that the music is too loud and goes too late to be so close to residential areas.
Aggravating the issue was a particularly loud show by Slaughter held at the bar June 8, which 5th Ward Councilor Ron Dulaney said he could hear clearly at his home, one and a half miles from the stage.
Brake said he intended to work with Sabraton Station and concerned residents in an attempt to find a solution that will keep the peace without damaging a city business.
In other news, council voted 6-1 to authorize an agreement with Segra for a VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol phone system.
Fetty voted in the minority.
The system will replace the 13-year old network in place, which, Brake said, is obsolete and doesn’t work in some city facilities, like the public works garage.
The agreement will cost a one-time fee of $1,350 and monthly lease fees of $4,899.42 for the next five years, totaling just under $300,000.
